With the continued shortage of both coal, oil and other types of fuels and the consequential increase in costs of energy sources, there is presently a great interest in utilizing other available energy sources. One such energy source which is readily available is solar energy. The main problem with utilizing solar energy as a source of heat and power is the proper harnessing and gathering of the solar energy to provide sufficient heat for storing and subsequent use. Although the solar energy is plentiful, in order to provide efficient systems for using such energy, enough of the sunlight must be collected and concentrated into an appropriate heating system.
In the prior art there have been many types of solar collection devices each attempting to provide the most efficient reflective system for collecting and concentrating the solar energy. Some of these devices are parabolic in shape, others are dish-like in shape, and numerous other types of configurations have been provided. While many of these have been found useful, one of the basic problems is to place the reflector in an appropriate position to gather the greatest amount of sunlight. During the day, the sun moves along an arcuate path across the sky. Some of the prior art reflectors are stationary and attempt to provide a wide enough area to be able to receive the sunlight in all of its positions along the arcuate path. However, these devices are not truly effective since a large amount of the reflector space will not always be utilized to receive the solar energy. Only the reflectors angularly positioned to face the sunlight at a given direction in the sky will receive the sunrays. The rest of the reflector will be inoperative. Accordingly, the efficiency of such devices is exceedingly low and its use has been extremely limited.
Other prior art reflector systems include a tracking system which attempts to track the movement of the sun across the sky and continuously focus the reflector to face the direction of the sun. While these reflectors are more efficient than the permanently fixed type, they too have not provided sufficient collection and concentration of the sun's rays to find acceptance. One of the reasons for their inefficiencies concerns the angular direction of the reflector system. Although the reflector may utilize a tracking system whereby it faces the direction of the sun, it is apparent that the rays of the sun will not always fall on the reflector at the same angle. For example, in a parabolic reflector, even if it faces toward the sun when the sun is at an extreme Easterly position, more light will reflect off one side of the parabolic reflector than the other. In fact, one part of the reflector probably will not receive any of the sun's rays at all. Furthermore, the angle of reflection off the parabolic walls will not always be the same and much of the reflected light will not be concentrated on a storage system which is to receive the reflected light.
It is therefore evident that for each position of the sun in the sky there must actually be provided a distinctly configurated reflector system which is particularly designed to have reflector surfaces available to receive the sun's rays most efficiently and properly reflect it onto a storage system. With the continuous movement of the sun across the sky, there must therefore be provided a continuously changeable configuration to the solar reflecting system whereby it will provide the most efficient reception and reflection of the sun's rays for that particular instantaneous position of the sun.
Heretofore, the solar energy reflecting systems have been of fixed configuration. Although the entire system may have pivoted or rotated to face the fun, the reflecting system configuration itself has been fixed with panels or reflector surfaces permanelty mounted onto a a support surface or housing. The prior art systems have therefore failed to recognize the necessity of having a continuously changeable reflective system configuration which is adapted to provide the most efficient angular configuration of the reflector surfaces for the instantaneous position of the sun in the sky.